Ball partners

Tara hadn't planned to stop anyone. But while at the mall with a friend, she spotted a group of NDA cadets walking past-disciplined, sharp, and unknowingly magnetic. The letter she'd written for Shiv, her old friend who had just joined NDA, was still in her purse. She hadn't gotten around to posting it.

On impulse, she approached one of the cadets. "Hey, could you give this to Shiv? He's a junior-just joined," she said.

He didn't know Shiv, but smiled and said he'd find him. What started as a quick favor turned into an easy, lingering conversation. And just before leaving, he asked, "Would you come to the NDA Ball?"

Tara said yes, half-curious, half-amused.

She had once dreamed of AFMC, of being part of that world in olive green. What she didn't know was that the boy she'd just met was closer to her world than she realized. If her friend had been there, she might've noticed.

But she wasn't.
And that's how it all quietly began.